United States: Most Americans say the US should confront the challenge of illegal immigration by both toughening border enforcement and creating a new guest-worker programme, instead of just cracking down on enforcement, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
By a 2-1 margin, those surveyed said they would prefer a comprehensive approach, such as the McCain-Kennedy Bill supported by the Irish Government, to an enforcement-only strategy, which the House of Representatives approved last December.
Americans showed markedly less enthusiasm for allowing guest workers to continue to flow into the US than they did for proposals to permit the estimated 11 million illegals already in the US to remain. The poll, based on interviews with 1,357 adults, found that while 84 per cent of respondents agreed that illegal immigration was a problem, 31 per cent identified it as one of the country's major problems.
The idea that drew the most support in the survey was allowing "undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the United States" to obtain visas to work legally, and to move toward citizenship if they met a list of requirements.
Two-thirds of those polled said they supported such a proposal, with support notably higher among independents (71 per cent), then Republicans (67 per cent) than Democrats (59 per cent). Two centrepieces of the House immigration legislation fared less well, although they attracted more support than opposition: 42 per cent said they supported measures to build a fence along the US-Mexican border and to make illegal immigration a felony, while 35 per cent opposed such measures.
After hearing the alternatives, 63 per cent said Congress should blend enforcement with a guest-worker programme, while 30 per cent said Congress should focus on enforcement only. Among whites, an underlying class division ran through several of the questions. The Republican enforcement provisions drew much more support from whites without college degrees than those with advanced education.
- (LA Times-Washington Post service)